Post by Darky on Aug 17, 2019 9:09:41 GMT -6

This. Was. The best. DAY. EVER.

Hooves thrashed through the shallow pools on the sandy beach, sea spray of stranded water thrown up into the skies to sparkle purple and orange in the setting sun. Admittedly, it seemed to have been setting for the past ten minutes, the mammalian had been trying to measure it to the horizon with thumb and finger but finding it moving not even a fraction of an inch. That was new, but so seemed to be all of the Mansion this month.

Behind her, seeming to almost giggle in the neighs a pale green equillion dashed across the sands like the devil itself was behind him. Except the devil was left at home and the dashing was filled with outright glee. And, really, she couldn’t blame him - it had been a literal forever since Bilious had been outside the farm, and of all the places to take him after such a break, it was a magical house turned into a sunset beach with water all around.

For Bilious, this was as close to a metaphorical candy store as it got.

Post by Darky on Aug 17, 2019 9:10:28 GMT -6

Under normal circumstances, and in past times with Tama or Terry, the sphinx would have been more careful on how far she’d let them stray. Today, however, Bilious was owed his joy and freedom to enjoy the environment as much as possible, both due to the long break and the fact it was simply his home turf, so to speak.

Plus, it wasn’t like she could curb that enthusiasm with anything. The tainted had been trying since forever and had on plenty occasions grieved over it utterly and completely continuing to fail. It’s what had made the kelpie so endearing to her in the first place, the sphinx knew, even if the tainted continued to deny such baseless accusations.

Still, Darky could hope Bilious had at least sense enough to be careful not to trip or shatter anything with his hooves as he went around running. Medical help was a long way from home in this place and they had barely arrived.

Post by Darky on Aug 17, 2019 9:11:10 GMT -6

The endless dashing finally came to a halt when Bilious, mid-run, dipped downward and threw himself, head over shoulder, into one of the deeper tide pools. There, flat on his side and face underwater, he gave a content snort that bubbled to the surface in sudden bursts. Darky could but roll her eyes and smile, attention now long lost from the never-moving sunset and walked over.

“I see we’re enjoying ourselves,” she smirked, leaning over the tide pool’s edge. Water was Bilious’ thing. She knew how to swim now, but it was still never going to be ‘her’ thing.

A white glow shone back from beneath the ripples of the water, blinked and then suddenly a squirt of water came up to splash in her face, followed by another spray of water when the equillion shot to his feed and dashed off, nickering happily at a joke well executed.

Darky flinched back at the initial squirt but mostly stood still as the spray lightly trenched her, hand raised to shield her face. When it was over, she sighed, head shaking and looking herself over, “So much for staying dry this time around.”

Post by Darky on Aug 17, 2019 9:11:48 GMT -6

Lessons had been learned from last time, when the ocean seemed to set her adrift in an endless seeming room and eventually stranding her in various place through the Mansion. The clothing districts of the City had things called ‘swim’ suits. The whole look of them gave her more concerns than hope, but she’d found a set that at least felt comfortable to wear. Over that were still loose slacks and a short-sleeve shirt, but at least getting trenched in the ocean wasn’t going to make all clothes cling annoyingly this time.

Wiping at the shirt as if that could dry it, she looked after the retreating equillion and called, “Veeery funny, Bilious!”

The equillion stopped to look back, ears raised, before quickly darting off again, skipping and hopping in the process. Normally the tainted would have given chase easily, but the sphinx, even in her alacrity and wind magic, could not hope to be so fast as to keep up with him.

Instead the sphinx walked, and then began to slightly jog after, hoping the equillion had sense to turn around on his own.

Post by Darky on Aug 17, 2019 9:12:17 GMT -6

Now, Bilious and ‘sense’ tended to rarely go together in the same sentences, unless one combined it with the word ‘humour’. All the same, senses were still something he had.

The hooves pounded through the soft sand in faint beats, until suddenly the sound changed to a dull thudding. Bilious skid to a stop, ears forward and looked down. His head tilted slightly, one hoof tentatively rising and giving the sand a kick. Thunk! Strange.. sand wasn’t supposed to sound like that. He tried again, twice this time. Thunk! Thunk!

For five seconds the equillion seemed to stand completely still, staring at the sand at his feet, then, the hoof moved again, but this time beginning to scrape at the sand, digging for whatever made the noise below. It took only a few second for the sand to reveal a pale white rugged surface, continuing to thud hollowly whenever the hoof scraped it again.

Post by Darky on Aug 17, 2019 9:12:57 GMT -6

By the time most of it had been unbeached, the sphinx managed to catch up, not quite out of breath from the jogging but definitely feeling the warmth of the beach getting higher and not just from the air temperature. The commotion did not go unnoticed and she stopped beside the equillion, “What did you find, Bilious?”

The kelpie turned his head and gave a low whine, tip-toeing back a few paces to show her. He couldn’t make sense of it, but the sphinx easily recognized it as a piece of driftwood that had been covered in sand by the tides. It was a fairly large one, too large for them to lug on home, but otherwise would have made a fine decoration in any house yard.

“It’s a tree,” Darky explained, stroking his mane and remembering all to late it was permanently soaked, “A tree that fell into the sea at some point.”

Blank white eyes looked at her, slowly blinking. The ears were up in curiosity but the words weren’t getting through.

Post by Darky on Aug 17, 2019 9:13:25 GMT -6

“..Right,” Darky wanted to smack her own forehead. The habit of talking out loud to the tainted tended to kick in with others of her extended family. Except unlike the tainted the others had no ribbons to translate her loudly worded thoughts into understandable speech. Although.. she supposed it may have been tough with Bilious even so. To explain to him there was a tree that came from the sea and ended up under sand would have been challenging even if he understood the words.

Of this Nightmare had warned her about.

“You know what,” she smiled instead, patting his side and realizing that too was actually soaked, “Don’t worry about it, it’s fine.”

A hand gesture forward and the equillion gave one last look, one last hoof thump at the wood, before moving off. Tentatively at first, not sure if he should relinquish attention from this New Thing, but steadily more enthusiastically as the rest of the beach made him forget about it.

Post by Darky on Aug 17, 2019 9:14:07 GMT -6

Darky in the meantime knelt down and flicked open the wrist-blade, carefully cutting off a small splinter from the wood and stowing it in the bag. The Mansion, much like the Mines sometimes, were good for little trinkets and memorabilia to decorate shelves with. The log itself may have been too big, but she figured the small piece could be whittled into something neat, like a statuette.

That done, it was time to play catch-up with the equillion once more.

Arguably, they were in a room, somewhere. Not that one could tell, from the seeming endlessness of the horizon, but sooner or later there would be a doorway or a transition and the environment would completely change. Most of the time you could spot a threshold fairly easily. Sometimes, though.. sometimes the threshold snuck up on you.

“Bilious! Don’t run too far,” she called to the equillion, resorting to a light jog again. She knew to look for them. The poor equillion might crash into one head-first, however, especially at his tenuous attention span.

Post by Darky on Aug 17, 2019 9:14:46 GMT -6

The concerns proved to be unfounded.. for about ten minutes. They had come up on a thicket of reeds growing out of a shallow tide pool still connected to the ocean in fine little rivulets. The equillion, of course, had ran into the reeds without a second thought, thinking it a pond. Technically he wasn’t wrong. In practice there was a sudden surprised whinny and a splash, reeds swaying every this way.

“Bilious!” Darky called, a jog turning into a run. Reaching the edge of the reeds she peered in, seeing nothing but dark water for the first several seconds. Then a pale glow in the depths and finally the equillion’s head surface, snorting a spray of water everywhere. From the distance the depth looked like it was two feet at best. But the strange visual illusion of the equillion being completely submersed except for just his head suggested otherwise.

Darky craned a brow, then, realizing the implications, sighed, tightened the bag straps closer to her body and began stepping into the pool.

Post by Darky on Aug 17, 2019 9:15:14 GMT -6

It wasn’t that she hated water. Quite the opposite, it was a vitally important resource in her homeland, so much so that entire wars could be fought over who controlled what source of it. However, its scarcity meant it had a sacredness, a practical one that said ‘you need to drink this to live, therefore you do not just throw yourself into it to contaminate it’.

The Labs, of course, had no such scarcity, but that also meant she had never gotten used to how water felt when it just.. enveloped you. It was clingy and heavy, and would have easily stung her lungs in short order if she hadn’t been wearing the medallion. It was the initial dip in that was always the worst, but once swimming, things got a little easier.

Bilious swam back to give her space, treading water and watching as she submerged. If it hadn’t been for the goggles, everything would have been a blurry, murky mess, but the limited benefit they gave her showed the ‘pond’ having a deep, dark opening at its bottom.. and somewhere beyond that, soft light filtering through.

Post by Darky on Aug 30, 2019 12:23:34 GMT -6

A tunnel was an invitation for what would have surely been a completely new area inside the Mansion, an opportunity to expand their exploration. But one they didn't need to get into just yet, figuratively or literally. Darky sank a little lower, kicking her feet to fight the buoyancy (the amulet let her breathe but it did nothing to make her immune to regular underwater physics). She surveyed the opening, trying to spot anything beyond, but the disturbed sand made a foggy film in front of her and so she gave up, paddling upwards to the surface.

If getting into the water had been annoying, resurfacing was just a second chapter in the same book - the fur clung to her like a drowned rat and her hair had to be pushed away from her eyes. Lifting the goggles, it was only then she realized one concerning factor. There was no equillion in the water.

Post by Darky on Aug 30, 2019 12:24:36 GMT -6

Momentary panic gripped her in a fashion not unlike realizing you left a sharp knife on the table of a nursery filled with hyperactive five year olds. City nursery, not her local homeland, that was. Children among the abiharim learned basic living skills from as old as they could lift the relevant tool. Flipping around left, right, front and back, the sphinx spun in water to a cascade of sprays, calling "Bilious!" every couple of seconds.

A noise caught her ears, off to the far side and she quickly paddled ashore. There, down the beach a good distance away, was the familiar sea foam colour of the wild, prancing around and seeming to chase something fluttering through the air. The sphinx wiped water from her face, squinted and them broke off into a jog with a sigh, eyes able to tell nothing except that it was something pale. As she drew closer the pale form grew dark spots and eventually wings, explaining why it was able to flutter so. The equillion had apparently befriended a little sea bird while she had been underwater.

Post by Darky on Aug 30, 2019 12:25:54 GMT -6

The fact should not have surprised her - Bilious' nature was that of a perpetual foal, regardless of his otherwise somewhat old body. He was giddy and bubbly and friendly, factors which had made him perfect as Nightmare's mate. But those qualities extended beyond that as well.

The bird flew in circles, swooping as the equillion pranced along the sand and ducking around him when he swung his tail around. The idea was not to hit the bird, but to brush it lightly, which the white-black bird was far too agile for. When Bilious finally stopped, sides heaving and bright eyes shining happily, the bird came to perch on his horn.

"Looks like we made some friends," the sphinx said as her jog finally reached the two. Bilious' head turned, but slowly as to not disturb said friend, an he gave a content nicker. Darky watched it at fist, before slowly reaching out her hand towards it. The bird's head tilted, then made a peck at the hand and finally jumped down on it, giving a small peep.

Shoutbox

Morgan: No one knows yet. But I did want to make it clear that the jar itself isn't used for lotine husbandry in any way. c:Jun 5, 2020 4:24:19 GMT -6*

Twilight-Claw: I'm only assuming that it does something similar like a Fungal Beast that infects a Leaf-scatter. (the one with moss and I think it was a pink flower growing on the head.)Jun 5, 2020 4:18:34 GMT -6

Morgan: The lolatic doesn't disappear after one use, and can be reused on the same lotine when it is allowed to 'infect' a lotine- to my knowledge.Jun 5, 2020 1:41:37 GMT -6

Morgan: The only effect/thing that the jar can be used for is to open up into a lolatic. The jar itself has no use in lotine breedings.Jun 5, 2020 1:39:52 GMT -6

Twilight-Claw: and the jar is then gone, if with the creature I am more guessing with this the creature doesn't disappear and it has unlimited use.Jun 5, 2020 0:17:55 GMT -6

Twilight-Claw: Something else I am wondering about with the Lotine breeding is whether one would use the jar the Lolatic comes from in the breeding, or actually the creature itself. I'm assuming with it if its the jar, then it gives people only one shot in a breeding, Jun 5, 2020 0:16:08 GMT -6

Twilight-Claw: Then using it in my rps is definitely just for the sake of rp's and not for anything additional. Jun 5, 2020 0:12:17 GMT -6

Renathan: There's no additional effect for adding a fish to a magical berry in a lotine breeding. Magical Berry is kinda it's own thing. Adding a fish for roleplay value shouldn't hurt, but it has no effect when used on a magical berry lotine breeding.Jun 4, 2020 22:27:14 GMT -6

Twilight-Claw: be just for the sake of rp, and perhaps seeing if it might lent a bigger chance to multiple offspring with unique pattern. X3Jun 4, 2020 15:31:01 GMT -6

Twilight-Claw: I think your right on it being unlimited use yeah, although.. *cough* I only found out a couple hours after I started writing that I had yet to buy the fish in question so used the one you could get for free as a replacement, it still was meant to mostly Jun 4, 2020 15:30:59 GMT -6

Riku: From what I loosely understand about the fish is that it isn't one-use, whereas the berry is. I feel like there wouldn't be any consequence of 'using' the fish...which I'd think just ooc wouldn't be counted for whatever rolls or whatever it is that it usesJun 3, 2020 14:14:30 GMT -6

Twilight-Claw: Thanks for that piece of info Ren! <3 | But would it be allowed for the flavor of the rp if the berry wasn't filling enough for the Lotine? Jun 1, 2020 6:09:21 GMT -6*

Renathan: There is no need to double up on a fish and a magical berry (doesn't change the effect of the berry at all) in a lotine breeding.Jun 1, 2020 6:02:21 GMT -6

Twilight-Claw: Does anyone know if it is possible to combine both a magical berry and a fish in a Lotine breeding? Or is you can only choose one of them? (right now writing a Lotine breeding) Jun 1, 2020 5:36:49 GMT -6

Twilight-Claw: I am still interested in trading it for a green drake. Jun 1, 2020 0:31:33 GMT -6